Israel diplomat car blast: Delhi Police asks Iran to cooperate

New Delhi: With the Israeli diplomat attack case hitting a roadblock a year after the incident, Delhi Police has sent a reminder to five countries including Iran seeking urgent cooperation in unravelling the plot.

Official sources said a reminder for action on the Letters Rogatory was sent to Iran recently as a probe hinted at involvement of its nationals in the attack, the first of its kind in India's terror history where a foreign national was targeted in the country by a suspected terror group of another country.

Besides Iran, reminders were sent to Israel, Thailand, Malaysia and Georgia from where the Delhi police wanted to procure certain documents pertaining to the case, the sources said today.

AP

The reminders were sent in an attempt to take the case forward which otherwise has hit a dead end following alleged non-cooperation by authorities in Tehran in executing arrest warrants against four of its nationals.

Apart from arresting Syed Mohammed Ahmed Kazmi, an Urdu journalist, for allegedly being a part of larger conspiracy in the bombing incident, the probe could not make a headway as the suspected main bomber Houshang Afshar, an Iranian national flew into Iran from Malaysia.

Delhi Police has filed two chargesheets in the case which names four Iranian nationals and Kazmi, who was granted bail by Supreme Court in October last year after having been arrested in March, 2012.

However, it was being felt that the case cannot be brought to its logical conclusion until the alleged bomber and his accomplice in the case were not questioned. Delhi Police has named Afshar as the main accused who had planted a bomb on the vehicle of Israeli diplomat Tal Yeshua on February 13 here last year that left the diplomat injured.

The bombing took place barely 500 metres from the high-security residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

From Georgia, the Delhi Police wants to get more details about the stay of Afshar in that country in 2011 as the authorities in capital Tbilisi were provided with an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number which was used by the alleged accused to make telephone calls.

The Delhi Police is seeking from Israeli authorities the statement of Yeshua who was airlifted to her country within days after the attack.

The Delhi Police's reminders to Malaysia and Thailand related to a request for handing over details of the investigations being carried out as a near-simultaneous attacks on Israeli nationals in India, Thailand and Georgia were initially planned as part of a conspiracy.

However, in Bangkok, the plan failed after one of the bombs exploded with its handler while in Georgia, it was defused by the police.

In the first chargesheet, Delhi Police had named Kazmi, Afshar, Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, Saeid Moradi and Mohammad Kharzei for allegedly hatching conspiracy and executing the terror attack and the second chargesheet details use of a scooter for recce, motorcycle on the day of incident and some call details.

India has secured an Interpol Red Corner warrant against all the four and it was also issued. The phone book of Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, who was arrested by Malaysian police from Kuala Lumpur airport, led to the arrest of Kazmi.

Explosive used for bombing in the national capital was TNT -- Trinitrotoluene, the Central Forensic Sciences (CFSL) said in its report two months after the attack.